UK filmmakers join art-house film promotions at Beijing film festival

Chinese and international filmmakers are now working closely to try to find ways of better promoting art-house films in China, suggesting the niche genre has a lot of potential in the world's second-largest entertainment market.

Katie Ellen is Senior Manager for Distribution and Commercial Strategy with the British Film Institute. She's currently in Beijing for an art-house film promotion forum, which has been held as part of the 8th Beijing International Film Festival.

"I've been to China every year for the last five years; and five years ago, we really didn't see much about art-house film. No one was talking about it, and we didn't really see much of opportunity for how U.K. art-house film might reach Chinese audiences. This year, everything is different, and I'm delighted to see this panel and to see everyone talking so enthusiastically about how art-house film can be seen by Chinese audiences. Working with the National Film Archive and understanding about how their art-house alliance is taking film around China and the vast audience here is incredibly exciting."

A panel discussion is held on Monday, April 16, 2018 in Beijing as part of an art-house film promotion forum during the 8th Beijing International Film Festival. [Photo: China Plus]

China's National Art-house Film Alliance was launched in October 2016. The Beijing-based China Film Archive is leading the alliance, which has chosen 100 cinemas in 31 major cities across the country to screen art-house films. Through the deal the alliance has struck, all 100 cinemas have guaranteed they will screen art-house films at least three times a day and 10 times per week at peak times.

Online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao is a new member of this alliance. Jerry Li Jie is President of Taopiaopiao. He says social media is going to play a big role in helping reach potential audience members for these special films. 

"Art-house films, often, have a small but concentrated fan base. The best promotion around an art-house film, in my opinion, is spreading its reputation by word of mouth. This way, new media and social media become the most effective platforms for building its reputation. Since an art-house film is usually a low-budget film, it doesn't necessarily cost a big sum of money in doing promotions."

Katie Ellen with the BFI is leading a thirteen-member delegation from the U.K. film industry to this year's film festival in Beijing. She says some of the delegates, who are talented producers and who have made some of the best films in the UK, need to better understand how the Chinese film industry works.

"We have also worked closely with them in bringing classic British films to Chinese audiences including Shakespeare and Hitchcock; and again, this is not something that we would have imagined could have happened. So what we did is baby steps. We feel the art-house film in China is developing and taking lessons from the rest of the world, but also now, we are understanding better how specially social media can be used and taken in art-house films to wider audiences. That's something, that China, I think, takes a lead."

Discussing the future for art-house films, Lu Wei, Founder and CEO of Skyfilm, says he's optimistic. 

"Art-house films can be connected with tourism. An art-house film usually has deep involvement with local communities and local culture. It would be a lot better if we can associate an art-house film with local tourism. The Ministry of Culture and the China National Tourism Administration have merged to form the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This gives us a good, new direction."

Statistics from a survey conducted by Taopiaopiao show that around 60 percent of art-house film viewers are female. And 60 percent of them are young adults aged between 20 and 29. The survey has also found that around 70 percent of the audience base for art-house films come from Beijing and Shanghai. Li Jie says this shows there is still a lot of work left to get the art-house film concept to the rest of China.

"The bad news is that art-house film remains unfamiliar to the residents of the third and fourth-tier cities. This, on the other hand, indicates big development potential in these cities. If people in these cities are willing to go to the cinema for an art-house film, the box office is really something we can start to bank on."

Li Jie says Taopiaopiao is planning to invest around 300 million yuan into the production and promotion of 20 different art-house films in China over the next three years.